Special Collections

Support for various pastoral projects throughout Latin America and the Caribbean is made possible through the Collection for the Church in Latin America. Projects are at the continental, regional, diocesan and local levels, and include the work of evangelization, formation of laity, religious and seminarians, as well as youth ministry and catechesis. Funding is limited to programmatic expenses and excludes building construction except in cases of emergency. This special collection channels aid through the bishops’ conferences of Central and Eastern Europe to meet the needs of rebuilding the Church: training seminarians and lay leaders, supporting social service programs, youth ministry, pastoral and catechetical centers, schools, church construction and renovation, and evangelization through Catholic mass media.

Bishop Thomas' Letter

Provides funding for Catholic Relief Services; USCCB Office of International Justice and Peace, Migration and Refugee Services, and Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees; relief work of the Holy Father; and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network. 

Bishop Thomas' Letter

Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada Faces of Hunger

As we begin the season of Lent, this special collection of almsgiving aids direct services to the poor in Southern Nevada.

Bishop Thomas' Letter

The Collection for the Holy Land, in the words of Paul VI is "not only for the Holy Places but above all for those pastoral, charitable, educational, and social works which the Church supports in the Holy Land for the welfare of their Christian brethren and of the local communities." The Holy Land collection is taken up in most parishes on Good Friday.

Bishop Thomas' Letter

Launched in 1998, the Appeal strengthens the Catholic Church in the United States and its territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific where resources are thin and priests are few. grantees include 87 Latin and Eastern Catholic dioceses. The appeal funds a wide range of pastoral services including evangelization, religious education, and the maintenance of mission parishes, the training of seminarians and lay ministers, and ministry with ethnic groups. Since 1884, proceeds from the Black and Indian Missions Collection (Bilvf) are distributed as grants to dioceses supporting and strengthening evangelization programs, which would otherwise be in danger of disappearing among the Black, American Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut communities of the United States.

Bishop Thomas' Letter

The essential mission of the CCC is to contribute to the process of evangelization by fostering activities in relation to television, radio, internet, and other media, and through special projects of the Catholic press. An annual collection is taken up in the dioceses, which remit 50% of the funds collected to the National Office. From these funds, grants are made by the USCCB Subcommittee on the Catholic Communication Campaign. The remaining portion of the collection is retained by the dioceses for use in local communication projects.

Provides funding for academic scholarships at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC in response to the commitment made by the bishops at its foundation in 1887. Catholic University is the only U.S. university with Pontifical faculties. Students are enrolled from all 50 states and almost 100 countries in 12 schools.

Bishop Thomas' Letter

The Peter’s Pence Collection enables the Holy Father to respond with emergency financial assistance to requests to aid the neediest throughout the world--those who suffer as a result of war, oppression, and natural disasters. It likewise provides the faithful with a tangible opportunity to not only empower the weak, defenseless, and voiceless, but also sustain those who suffer.

Bishop Thomas' Letter

This collection aids in the payment of tuition for men studying for the Diocese of Las Vegas who are discerning a vocation to the priesthood. Another portion of this collection is used as supplemental funding to assist priests of the Diocese of Las Vegas in their ongoing education endeavors.

This collection is used to help sustain rural parishes that could not otherwise remain open. Many of these parishes are long distances from the next neighboring parish and serve populations that are small and therefore unable to maintain ministries and buildings completely on their own.

This fund distributes money for tuition assistance for students in need in the parochial elementary school system in the Diocese of Las Vegas.

In 1926 Pope Pius XI instituted Mission Sunday for the whole Church with the first worldwide Mission Sunday collection taking place in October 1927. The Mission Sunday collection is always taken on the next to last Sunday during the month of October. That day is celebrated in all the local Churches as the feast of catholicity and universal solidarity so Christians the world over will recognize their common responsibility with regard to the evangelization of the world.

Bishop Thomas' Letter

Currently, 285 Catholic military chaplains provide pastoral care to over 1.5 million Catolics on ships, in combat, on bases and in 153 VA hospitals. The Collection for the Archdiocese for the Military Services will fund their Co-Sonsored Seminarian Program, which identifies vocations within the military and is now education 30 men for the priesthood and subsequent military chaplaincy.

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development was mandated by the U.S. bishops to address the root causes of poverty in America through promotion and support of community-controlled, self-help organizations and transformative education.

The Retirement Fund for Religious (RFR) provides funding to any religious institute in the U.S. that is listed in the religious institute section of the OCD with an identifying OCD number, and that has an unfunded past service liability. It distributes direct care, planning and implementation assistance from the fund to religious institutes based on a formula and criteria approved by the conferences of major superiors and bishops. Annual appeal begun in 1988 and approved through 2018.

This collection will supplement the Priests Retirement Fund for the Diocese of Las Vegas.